Framed Movements Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. 10 October - 23 November Presented in association with Melbourne Festival

Transcription

1 Framed Movements Australian Centre for Contemporary Art 10 October - 23 November 2014 Presented in association with Melbourne Festival

2 Framed Movements FRAMED MOVEMENTS investigates the potential that lies at the shifting boundaries between dance and art. ACCA Associate Curator, Hannah Mathews has brought together a number of existing and new works that explore the use of the body in space - in particular the gallery space. It is easy to confuse choreography with dance, but FRAMED MOVEMENTS is concerned less with the conventions, musicology and patterning of ballet or contemporary dance, than with the formal, sculptural and psychological power of human movement. FRAMED MOVEMENTS brings together new and recent work by Australian and international artists who use choreography as a critical tool in their practice. Broadly understood, choreography is a movement-based approach to the occupation of time and space, and these artists employ choreographic tools such as devised movement, sequencing, notation, improvisation and scores to orchestrate movement within their works. Presented across a range of platforms, both temporal and material, the exhibition demonstrates the ways in which today s artists are using these methods to engage and challenge the vernaculars of various sites, behaviours and artistic disciplines. Curator, Hannah Mathews. The exhibition features film, installation, photography and performance by leading international and Australian artists. A series of performances also accompanies the exhibition, drawing our attention to the body in space. The exhibition is a follow up to the 2011 exhibition Power to the People: Contemporary Conceptualism and the Object in Art, also presented at ACCA in partnership with the Melbourne Festival. This exhibition explored the lineage of 1960s Conceptual Art on contemporary notions of art making. More information about this exhibition is available in the Education Kit FRAMED MOVEMENTS further reflects on the influence of Conceptual Art from the late 1950s and 1960s where artists challenged the status quo, creating happenings, performance and installation art, stretching the boundaries of what art can be. More specifically, the exhibition is particularly concerned with the choreographic ideas that were pioneered during this time and its influence on contemporary practice. ACCA Education page 2

3 Key Words & Meanings Choreography Choreography is typically defined as the art of creating and arranging dances. The word derives from the Greek for dance and for write. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it did indeed mean the written record of dances. In the 19th and 20th centuries, however, the meaning shifted, to encompass more broadly the movement of the body in space and time, while the written record came to be known as dance notation. Choreography is defined in the VCE Study Design for Dance (pg. 10) as: The creation and composition of a dance by selecting and arranging movements and patterns of movement to convey expressive intention. Movement Movement can be defined as the actions and gestures happening in, around and between us; movement happens in relation to objects, structures, environments; it is both conscious and unconscious; and it occurs through time. Curator, Hannah Mathews. The elements of movement as described in the VCE Dance Study Design are: Time: the use and manipulation of qualities such as rhythm, duration, accent, tempo and pauses. Space: the use of qualities such as shape, spatial organisation including travelling and on the spot movements, level, direction, focus and dimension. Energy: the manipulation of qualities of movement such as swinging, sustained, suspended, percussive, vibratory and collapsing to create dynamic variations of force and flow. Dance Dance is a type of art that generally involves the movement of the body, often rhythmic and to sound/music. It is performed in many cultures as a form of emotional expression, social interaction or exercise, in a spiritual or performance setting, and is sometimes used to express ideas or tell a story. Definitions of what constitutes dance can vary and depend on social and cultural, but dance is premeditated (conscious, planned or intentional) and exists as an important supporter or aspect of movement. Choreography sits somewhere in between [dance and movement], offering a conscious way of framing observing, considering and ordering the movement occurring around us to bring it to a point of focus. Curator, Hannah Mathews. Performance Art Performance is a form of art which became prominent in the 1960s however its roots can be traced to earlier art movements such as Dada and Surrealism. In Performance Art the medium is the artist s own body and the artwork takes the form of actions performed by the artist. The term is used to describe art that is live but operates outside of the traditional conventions of theatre, music and dance. By the 1970s the term was used to describe many different activities, which included happenings, body art, actions and events. Key artists included John Cage, Dennis Oppenheim, Yoko Ono, Marina Abroamovic, Joesph Beuys, Nam June Paik and Bruce Nauman. Art historian RoseLee Goldberg states: Historically, performance art has been a medium that challenges and violates borders between disciplines and genders, between private and public and between everyday life and art, and that follows no rules. (RoseLee Goldberg. Performance: Live art since the 60s, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998, page 20.) Installation Installation is an artist s arrangement of objects positioned in a particular relation to the architecture and/ or environment. The intention is to include the viewer within the context of the work, to elicit an experiential response. Installation transforms the traditional white cube gallery into a different spatial experience. Composition The arrangement of elements within a work of art. For example, the arrangement of line, colour and shape in a painting. In contemporary art composition more broadly refers to the combining of distinct parts or elements to form a whole. ACCA Education page 3

4 An Illustrated History of the Intersections Between Dance & Visual Arts Throughout history there has been an ongoing relationship between the visual arts and dance. These intersections have informed the emphasis on movement within the exhibition FRAMED MOVEMENTS. A select timeline of these intersections is below: 1900s 1930s 1950s 1970s 1990s 2000s Now Early twentieth century costume and set designs of Sergei Diaghilev s Ballets Russes by artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Sculptural costumes of Constructivist Theatre and the Bauhaus Das Triadische Ballet. Merce Cunningham s 1950s interdisciplinary collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Morris performance with minimalist sculpture. Anna Halprin s post-modern, everyday task-orientated movements and Simone Forti s pioneering dance constructions that questioned traditional dance and encouraged viewers to walk around and interact with them. The multimedia, installation and performance works of William Forsyth and Mark Leckey s iconic postmodern portrait of dance s relationship to subculture, dance and the visual arts in Fiorucci Made me Hardcore. Now artists are influenced by and taking choreography from dance, to consider movement in their artworks, just as choreographers are borrowing from the visual languages of artists to address aesthetic elements in their works. FRAMED MOVEMENTS acknowledges this shift. It states that choreography is no longer confined to dance but is practiced across the realm of contemporary art. ACCA Education page 4

5 Framed Movements Artists & Themes Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom Lane Cormick Paulina Olowska Brian Fuata Jess Olivieri & Hayley Forward with Parachutes for Ladies Nathan Gray Exhibition themes Gestures Space Time Audience Document Looking across, thinking in between Gwenneth Boelens Lee Serle Agatha Gothe-Snape Emily Roysdon Alicia Frankovich Helen Grogan Maria Hassabi Joachim Koester Sandra Selig 1. Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom 2. Gwenneth Boelens Helen Grogan 3. Lane Cormick 4. Joachim Koester 5. Sandra Selig 6. Emily Roysdon 7. Jess Olivieri & Hayley Forward with Parachutes for Ladies Nathan Gray 9. Alicia Frankovich 10. Alicia Frankovich 11. Paulina Olowska 12. Brian Fuata 13. Agatha Gothe-Snape 14. Maria Hassabi 15. Lee Serle ACCA Education page 5

6 Gesture Gesture: a movement of part of the body to express an idea or meaning. Several works in FRAMED MOVE- MENTS focus on types of bodies and their behaviours, captured in simple actions and gestures. These works remind us that our bodies are conditioned by many internal and external factors, like where we live, where we work, how we work, how we travel in a day and what we do in a day. ACCA Education page 6

7 Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom Sloss, Kerr, Rosenberg & Moore 2007 single-channel colour video with sound 4.30 mins, looped Courtesy the artists and Longhouse Projects, NY This video work features four practicing New York City attorneys (John Sloss, Chet Kerr, Scott Rosenberg and Thomas Moore) performing a movement and vocal score that references and reflects upon their work and lives. Originally created as a live performance by American choreographer Ann Carlson, it was later recreated for video in collaboration with American artist Mary Ellen Strom. The work s rhythmic sequences illustrate the performative aspects of the legal profession, the pressures experienced while working inside the juridical system, the contest, the service and ultimately the lawyer s individual humanity. This work reflects on the marks of work or labour on the human body. It also reflects the fast paced, on demand nature of the modern work environment and how workers must compress movement and time in a day to get all their tasks complete. Thinking about it: What are tasks that you do in your everyday at work or school? What are the movements of these everyday tasks? (eg. walking to school, listening, typing on computer, wriggling in your chair). Looking at the movements of Sloss, Kerr, Rosenberg & Moore, are you attracted to the legal tasks they perform or are you discouraged to become an office worker? Why? How does this work comment and reflect on contemporary working and labour conditions and pressures? Making it: Working in groups of 3 or 4, create a 1 minute choreographed performance inspired by your everyday movements and gestures. Create a notation (written and/or visual diagram) of these movements and the order in which you perform them. Perform your work and as a class, reflect on the artistic process. Researching it: Mary Ellen Strom & Ann Carlson, Lecture: Body & Camera: youtube.com/watch?v=h1x0qgylaxk Mary Ellen Strom website, artwork details: projects/sloss-kerr-rosenberg-moore loop/ ACCA Education page 7

8 Joachim Koester The Place of Dead Roads, 2013 single-channel HD colour video projection with sound Courtesy the artist and Jan Mot Galerie, Brussels/Mexico City The Place of the Dead Roads is a 30 minute single channel projection titled after William Burrough s 1983 novel of the same name. The film portrays four androgynous, down-and-out looking cowboys engaged in the ritual of posing, circling, drawing their guns, the shoot out and other gestures linked to the traditional Western film genre. In contrast to the typical narrative progression of such films, the cowboys in Koester s work appear to alternate between actions, without a set narrative or form. They appear in an undefined location, inside a rambling, rickety wooden structure. This work also questions the gender of traditional Western films; traditionally presenting rough male cowboys, here the majority of figures are female, albeit androgynous looking. Through their trance-like state and gesture, Koester s cowboys illustrate the gendered stereotypes that are perpetuated and maintained by popular narratives and social stereotypes. Thinking about it: List some other common narrative genres. Identify stereotypical characters and their characteristics within these genres. Write an analysis on how Koester is questioning the popular Western genre stereotype in this artwork. Making it: Create a visual diagram of stereotypical characters and their characteristics within 3 different narrative genres. Researching it: Interview with Joachim Koester: Joachim Koester press release: presskits/2014/joachim-koester-pr-en. pdf ACCA Education page 8

9 Jess Olivieri, Hayley Forward & Parachutes For Ladies Small States, 2008 single-channel HD colour video projection with surround sound 4.10 mins Courtesy the artists Sydney artists Jess Olivieri and Hayley Forward work with an often temporary and site-specific collection of collaborators that gather under the name Parachutes for Ladies. The artists filmed Small States during a residency in Berlin. Using a fixed frame, the video documents a choreographed performance by four local men who move in formations in direct reference to the opening of the musical West Side Story. Clicking their fingers whilst they move around a space between Frankfurter Alle and Karl Marx Alle, amongst several stone columns, the men mark and track the space. Thinking about it: Close your eyes and listen to the sound and how it exists in the gallery space. Compare this work to the opening sequences of West Side Story: watch?v=bxoc5oyf_ss Researching it: Small States Catalogue: mop.org.au/pdf/smallstatescatalogue. pdf Parachutes for Ladies website: The work is presented on a single channel projection and the sound of the men clicking is amplified in the space through four speakers hanging over the viewer s heads. In creating this work the artists were interested in investigating the social and cultural factors that influence how we inhabit (occupy) public space and they were particularly drawn to the space in Berlin, as a historically contested site. ACCA Education page 9

10 Alicia Frankovich Defending Plural Experiences, 2014 live performance 4-hour duration Defending Plural Experiences: MOCAP Creation, 2014 HD colour video with sound Motion Capture and CG animation by Kim Vincs and Daniel Skovli, Deakin Motion. Lab In Exchange for Marx s Coat, 2014 bags purchased from the participants of Defending Plural Experiences held at ACCA, 11 October 2014 dimensions variable Report 1: On Defending Plural Experiences, 2014 ink on paper shorthand report on the rehearsal of Defending Plural Experiences held at ACCA, 11 October 2014 reporter: Rachel Baxendale dimensions variable Report 2: On Defending Plural Experiences, 2014 ink on paper shorthand report on the performance Defending Plural Experiences held at ACCA, 11 October 2014 reporter: Elizabeth Redman dimensions variable New Zealand artist Alicia Frankovich is interested in the encounter between art and humans. She describes the audience of her performances as active observers, blurring the boundaries between traditional participant and audience, asking us to consider how we occupy space and how we impact the collective viewing experience. In her new commission, Defending Plural Experiences she explores the potential of bodies in states of change and transformation. Comprising a live performance in the gallery, a performance for video, sculptural and written works, the piece brings various bodies (human, animal and cyborg - computer animation character) together in a open, unique, non hierarchical world. Using a sculptural and movementbased approach to composition, Frankovich layers the bodies and gestures of trained dancers, amateur performers and service workers (including a bike courier). In choreographing and rehearsing the performance, the dancers and amateur performers were asked to respond to still images, video and words to create poses or gestures, such as butterfly, Justin Beiber, Swan, ice-skating winner, football warm up. They responded to these instructions with their own unique interpretations and performed them in either still or moving tableau, with the trained dancers intersecting with the movements, gestures and bodies of the amateur performers and active observers. Similar to the work Free Time (2013) where Frankovich choreographed a live series of ever changing encounters with participants, this work enacts a myriad of routines, gestures and bodies in movement or states of flux. The performance was performed live on two occasions. Firstly, at the Melbourne Zoo Butterfly enclosure where it was filmed, edited and created into the HD colour video that screens in the exhibition. Secondly live in ACCA galleries on Saturday 11 October. Alongside this film is an installation of bags from the performers purchased by Frankovich and two short hand Reports; one on the performance rehearsal and other on the live performance. The series of works tracks the progress, process and transformation of the work. Thinking about it: Imagine you were an active observer in the live performance. How would you react and respond to the work and the performers gestures in the space? Why do you think Frankovich chose to film the performance in the Melbourne Zoo butterfly house? What do butterflies symbolise? This artwork contains many parts. Create a visual and/or textual mindmap explaining your own interpretation of how these individual works connect. Making it: Working in groups of 4, create your own moving and still gestures and interpretations to found images, peoples, actions and life s transformations (baby, kid, teen, adult ). Look up images of a wide range of people (eg, celebrities, politicians, sports people, teachers, students, shop keepers). Think about the stages in life (baby, kid, teen, adult, work, retirement) and the gestures or movements that might symbolise these stages. Choreograph these gestures, movements and actions together in a moving composition or tableaux. Researching it: Alicia Frankovich website: aliciafrankovich.com Free Time Performance at AGNSW: watch?v=g1v3pirxgi0 ACCA Education page 10

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12 Emily Roysdon Sense & Sense a project with MPA, 2010 two-channel SD colour video, custommade MDF screens mins, looped Courtesy the artist Sense & Sense is a two channel video documentation of a performance Roysdon made in collaboration with New York Performance artist MPA. Located in Sweden s central square, Sergels torg, the performance follows MPA as she traverses across the square on her side. This work displays Roysdon s interest in exploring connections with choreography and political action: Sergels torg was planned and is actively used as a civic site but also a site for political demonstrations. Filmed from above, the performance is captured in two frames: a close up that emphasises the performer s physical struggle as she horizontally traverses the civic space, and an aerial view that documents the plaza s daily traffic of pedestrians moving across the square and encountering the performance. The square s iconic triangular pattern provides a strong aesthetic background for this portrait of the body, as she moves across black and white triangles. On the title of the work: It s a simple repetition, but it doubles in on itself to make sense less clear, common sense questioned, and non-sense present. In particular I think Sense and Sense made sense for how I was thinking about Sergels torg as a utopian space, a practical site, an ideological location, and a representation of the city. - Emily Roysdon, from Sense & Sense interview by Kim Einarsson. Thinking about it: What art elements and principles can you see in this artwork? How do you feel or react as you view this work? What is it that makes you feel or react in that way? If you were passing by in the square, how would you react to MPA s movement? Research it: Emily Roysdon, Sense & Sense on Vimeo: Emily Roysdon, notes from MoMA Performance Symposium: emilyroysdon.com/index.php?/texts/ moma-perfprmance-symposium-text/ Emily Roysdon, Sense & Sense interview by Kim Einarsson: Sense-and-Sense-interview/ ACCA Education page 12

13 Space Space: 1. A continuous area or expanse which is free, available, or unoccupied. 2. The dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move. Space is a key concern for several artists in FRAMED MOVEMENTS. Whether social, architectural, contested or imagined, space is all around us, shaping our experiences, conditioning our behaviour, determining our movements. How space can be occupied, perceived and represented is of ongoing interest not only in art but also, of course, in politics, economics and culture more broadly. ACCA Education page 13

14 Gwenneth Boelens & Helen Grogan Choreography (for Gallery 2, ACCA), up to 60 plan prints on Forex x 89.5 cm each Courtesy the artists Space, specifically the reconfiguration of space, is central to the work of Gwenneth Boelens and Helen Grogan. Originally conceived in 2007, Choreography comprises 60 blackand-white images photographed at a dance studio in Melbourne at that time. The work was developed out of a desire to make a choreographic work that does not involve or engage a dancer. Instead, the work uses the photographic image to compose specific viewpoints that map the pathway and perspective of the absent dancer s body in the studio. For FRAMED MOVEMENTS Boelens and Grogan have revisited the work under the title Choreography (Gallery 2, ACCA). The photographs from the 2007 work are mounted on board and displayed leaning against the wall, but their order has been disjointed, elongated, overlapped and obscured. Despite this, the work remains as a visually coherent replica of a vacant dance studio. The arrangement of the photographs allows the viewer into the studio and gallery at once, combining choreography, sculpture and photography into an experience of time and space. Thinking about it: Does this work make you feel like you are in a dance studio or does it remind you of another space? Imagine you were a dancer in this studio. What song would you dance to and why? Making it: Using a smartphone/tablet video camera capture in 30 second recordings three different spaces that you visit most frequently in your day (eg. bedroom, classroom, kitchen). When capturing the space, think about the qualities or characteristics that make the space unique (sound, images, shapes) and capture these characteristics in a panorama or detailed shoot. Researching it: Gwenneth Boelens website: choreography.html ACCA Education page 14

15 Sandra Selig One another, 2014 two-channel SD colour video projection with sound duration variable Brisbane-based artist Sandra Selig works with a range of media from sound and light works, and smallscale pieces; to works on paper and site-specific installations. Her practice often explores the play between seeing and what is seen, combining the minute or microcosmic to the large and macrocosmic. In One another Selig plays with the gallery space, mapping it out, hiding and revealing the architecture of the room. She uses beams of two data projectors to illuminate the gallery space, making sections of the walls, ceiling, floor, shapes and colours visible by shifting light. To create this work Selig first completed a site visit of ACCA and the space. Informed by this she went back to her studio where she set up a small flat work surface to scale with the gallery space. On this surface she began experimenting with an improvisation that involved manually moving two sheets of A4 white and black paper across the surface. The movement of the sheets of paper was filmed at from above. In FRAMED MOVEMENTS this footage appears in the gallery space, projected across the room, elongated, ACCA Education page 15 stretched, pulled and narrowed as it hits the architecture. The work invites the audience to move into it, becoming a part of the space, the shapes, the light and the movement created through the projections. The soft sound of the paper shifting, moving from side to side around the surface is amplified in the space through speakers, so it becomes an immersive visual and aural installation. Thinking about it: What art elements and/or principles do you see in this work? Listen to the sound. Why do you think Selig included audio as a part of the work? This work provides you with slight clues about the gallery space (wall colour, corners, size). After experiencing this work, imagine the gallery without the projections. What would the space look like? Making it: Using different coloured paper, cut a variety of different geometric shapes and forms. Lay them out on an A3 surface and experiment with creating a variety of combinations of shapes overlapping and connecting creating an improvisation. Record some of these improvisations through film or still photography. Researching it: Sandra Selig, Milani Gallery: sandra-selig Sandra Selig, Be some other material, 2011:

16 Lee Serle Artist in residence program July September Second Dances, 2014 spatial intervention, live performance, audio recording, visual documentation various dimensions and durations As part of FRAMED MOVEMENTS, Melbourne-based choreographer Lee Serle undertook a unique residency with ACCA, during which he observed the activity and viewing habits of the audience, witnessed the making and demounting of exhibitions, interviewed staff from all areas of the organisation, and worked through a reading list dedicated to the history of museums and the concept of the white cube gallery Serle s new work 60 Second Dances was created in response to his residency and comprises an architectural intervention, live performance, audio recording and visual documentation. Serle has used blue tape to colour and cover a selection of concrete lines on ACCA s iconic forecourt grounds. It was within this space where he performed his 60 Second Dances and the sequences were recorded for permanent documentation and display as an audio and visual work throughout the exhibition duration. The video and visual footage of his performances is displayed on a monitor in the ACCA foyer, where it plays on loop without sound. The audio recording of Serle s performance is installed outside in the ACCA forecourt, audible to all people passing by. By separating the audio and the visual documentation, Serle draws our individual attention to the audio and visual characteristics of his performance. In doing so he also highlights the shared visual qualities of dance and art. Thinking about it: Observe people viewing the exhibition, paying particular attention to the amount of time they view a specific work and how they physically respond to an artwork. Do you notice similarities between these actions and the movements in Serle s 60 Second Dances? Go outside to the ACCA forecourt and listen to the audio of Serle s performance. Observe people passing by this work, paying particular attention to how they respond to the sounds they hear. Do you notice similarities between these reactions and the visual movements in Serle s 60 Second Dances? Researching it: Lee Serle on Vimeo: Lee Serle at Lucy Guerin: ACCA Education page 16

17 Time Time: 1. The indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. 2. A point of time as measured in hours and minutes past midnight or noon. Time is crucial to the experience of space. In fact, artists often approach time as a space in itself. While artists across all disciplines and generations have contended with time in their work, those of the 21st century deal with accelerated notions of time never experienced before; the impact of the internet and advanced communications, increased mobility and everadvancing digital technology. ACCA Education page 17

18 Maria Hassabi Intermission, 2013 live installation Courtesy the artist Intermission (2013) is a live installation by New York based choreographer, director and performance artist Maria Hassabi. Although it is a moving performance piece, it deals very much with the idea of stillness. Originally created as part of the Cyprus and Lithuanian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale and presented in the Palasport, a local gymnasium, the work draws on the idea, suggested by the title, of intermission: the time between the parts of a show, the time when viewing is less directed and attention more fragmented. Hassabi has exaggerated this idea, drawing it out through time and space to create an overlapping sequence of 2.5-hour solo performances that see, at any one time, three denim-clad performers intermittently and diagonally undulate and move down a set of steps. Reconfigured for FRAMED MOVE- MENTS, the performance takes place on large steps built in ACCA s largest exhibition hall for the work. The work exemplifies Hassabi s sculpturesque approach to movement and her interest in the relationship of the body to the image. By concentrating on creating stillness through live performance, she creates a flat image, sculpture and installation. Think of a volcano that moves slow, takes its time and attempts to be still. Trembles and tension become the motion. Separated at adolescence, sculpture and dance move towards a shared destination where they are inseparable like Gilbert and George. - Raimundas Malašauskas, Curator, oo, Cyprus and Lithuanian Pavilion Thinking about it: In describing this work the curator of the Venice Biennale Cyprus & Lithuanian Pavilion, Raimundas Malašauskas, stated: Think of a volcano that moves slow, takes its time and attempts to be still. Why do you think he would have described the work in this way? What questions and thoughts did watching this performance raise? Researching it: Marissa Hassabi Website: Incident Magazine Article: incidentmag.com/issue-1/reviews/ becoming-volcano-the-lithuania-andcyprus-pavilion-at-the-55th-venicebiennale-oo-and-maria-hassabi-intermission/ ACCA Education page 18

19 Paulina Olowska Body Movement Alphabet Studies, 2007 collages on paper, framed 46 x 65 cm each Polish artist, Paulina Olowska has a broad artistic practice, encompassing performance, painting, film and collage. Her work combines imagery of industry, leisure and socialist symbolism, borrowing imagery from Eastern European (Soviet) and American popular culture. Olowska plays with notions of time in her 2007 collage series, Body Movement Alphabet Studies. Part of a larger project known as Alphabet, comprising performance, print and poetry, these works are inspired by the 1926 Czech publication of the same name (Abeceda in Polish). Developed by the Czech artists collective Devetsil ( ), the publication combined the written work of poet, Vítězslav Nezval, with photomontages by avant-garde artist and typographer, Karel Teige, who developed his graphic design around photographs of dancer and choreographer, Milada Mayerova forming the letters of the alphabet with her body. The book was considered a landmark achievement of European modernism. Olowska s collages in FRAMED MOVE- MENTS are loosely based on Teige s human alphabet but are formed from human letterforms found in vintage and contemporary fashion magazines, television stills and snapshots. Using collage techniques of cut and paste, Olowska continues to explore the relationship between typography, choreography and politics found in these sources. Thinking about it: Describe some of the elements and principles you see in Olowska s collages. What letters can you see in her collages? How has she created the form of these letters? Making it: Using collage techniques, find a variety of imagery on magazines, internet and newspapers to arrange into letters and movements. Create select letters of the alphabet using the body and record these forms using photography. Researching it: Art Mag Feature, Paulina Olowska: paulina-olowska-find-out-what-its-allreally-about/ Poland Culture artist biography: culture.pl/en/artist/paulina-olowska ACCA Education page 19

20 Audience Audience: the assembled spectators or listeners at a public event such as a play, film, concert, or meeting. Since the late 1950s, artists have actively questioned the role of the viewer in their work, not just through the act of looking but by physically involving the viewer in the work itself. Many of the interdisciplinary works that emerged at this time, such as Anna Halprin s instructional pieces, invited the viewer s direct physical participation in the work or blurred the boundaries between art and audience by challenging the conventions of where and how it was shown. ACCA Education page 20

21 Nathan Gray Score for Dance (ACCA version), 2014 clear acrylic sheets, coloured masking tape dimensions variable Nathan Gray is a Melbourne-based artist and experimental musician whose works are almost always interactive, relying on viewer participation to help shape and experience the work. Most recently Gray has been exploring line moiré effect installations made from recycled materials, such as wood frames and acrylic sheets, creating immersive optical illusion installations. Score for Dance (ACCA Version) is an extension of this body of work, comprising a hanging installation of clear acrylic sheets covered with lines of coloured masking tape. Each sheet is carefully positioned to play a role within the whole, overlapping and juxtaposing to create an optical phenomenon known as the moiré effect. Thinking about it: Write a review of how you viewed and interpreted the Gray s work. What do you think is meant by the title Score for Dance? How does the title add meaning to the work? Making it: Create a line moiré pattern using hand drawn line patterns on transparency sheets. On a white background (or an overhead projector) layer the two transparencies on top of one another. Notice the movement occurring when one layer is shifted. Record some of the different line patterns created by photographing a range of the illusions. Researching it: Nathan Gray Blog: The moiré illusions are activated by the viewer s movements walking past layers of striped patterns make you feel as though the world is vibrating, moving and lines dancing around you. The work encourages the viewer to move, coaxing you into a sort of dance; as the viewer determines their own movement they in turn determine the movement of the work. ACCA Education page 21

22 Lane Cormick Kalasaki Rose, 2014 two-channel HD colour video projection, floor drawing, mixed media video documentation of the performance Kalasaki Rose held at ACCA, 9 October 2014 dimensions variable, looped The action of viewing plays a central role in Lane Cormick s performance, Kalasaki Rose (2014). This work encompasses a live performance, presented on the opening night of the exhibition, projected video documentation of this performance, a floor drawing and black motifs screenprinted straight onto the gallery walls. The two-hour performance featured a live eagle in the gallery space. Safely secured to a T bar structure in the centre of the gallery, the bird s performance was guided by its trainer. It prompted interesting conversations and thoughts around the bird s actions will the bird remain obedient? How is the bird s movement impacted by the gallery space and performance? The performance was recorded through a series of video and still cameras held by professional videographers and photographers who circled the bird at close proximity inside the 5meter diameter perimeter/ circle. For the remainder of the exhibition documentation and remnants of the performance remain: the projected documentation of the eagle performance on the gallery walls; the circle perimeter-like structure; and a line drawing inside this circle using tape, marking out the movement of the photographers / videographers in recording the footage. In this work Cormick is interested in blurring the division between performer and audience, the observer and the observed. It is built around symbols and imagery loaded with associations of risk, masculinity and performance. In this instance the command of the iconic eagle is brought into play, its trace and those of its observers notated on the floor for the remainder of the exhibition. Thinking about it: List words to describe an eagle. Brainstorm a range of different animals and identify characteristics they could symbolise. Researching it: Lane Cormick at Daine Singer: ACCA Education page 22

23 Document Document: to record (something) in written, photographic, film or other form. The idea of recording or documenting artworks has become central to contemporary practice. Documentation allows for the distribution and reproduction of artworks beyond the physical object or moment itself. In choreography, documentation plays a key role in the development and record of dance. Traditionally the idea of writing and dance where documentation methods such as scoring, notation and visual records play a key role in the development, communication and continuation of a dance work. The relationship between the work and its document also raises interesting and critical discussion around the issues of authorship and the artwork, prompting questions such as: Who is the artist? What is the artwork? ACCA Education page 23

24 Agatha Gothe-Snape Three Ways to Enter and Exit, 2011 three-channel DV with sound mins, looped Sydney based artist Agatha Gothe- Snape describes her conceptual practice as being closely related to improvisational performance. Based on ephemeral materials and subtle alterations to space, it often employs conversations or instructions which are used to stage critical responses to institutional, social and historical contexts. Gothe-Snape s work takes many forms and includes performance, PowerPoint slide shows, workshops, digital collages, diagrams and visual scores. Performance and visual scores are core components of her work Three Ways to Enter and Exit. First created in 2011 for a performance to be held at Sydney s Tin Shed Gallery, the work began with the artist constructing individual visual scores (paintings with coloured shapes, lines and patterns) for three invited dancers. The dancers were then asked to perform their interpretation of the visual score in the gallery space, alongside the score itself and a yellow plinth. Each dancer was given an hour to devise their response, followed by 20 minutes for the performance in front of an audience. Initially documented on video, the performance continues to exist in various formats, including a written account by Gothe-Snape, the visual score and muscle memory of the dancers. The performance is revisited in FRAMED MOVEMENTS by screening the original video documentation, capturing moments of the artwork creation in a compelling and immediate way. In this way Gothe-Snape employs the fixed nature of the document to arrest the temporal nature of performance, allowing the work and its ideas to be revisited by both the artist and audience across time. Thinking about it: Study the visual score by Gothe- Snape. How would you interpret the shapes, lines and pattern to create movement and gesture? Create a sequence of movements and gestures in response to it. Describe the use of art elements and principles in the visual score and in the performance. View a dance performance online (eg. music video, dance musical). Inspired by Gothe-Snape s work and using select art elements and principles interpret this performance by creating your own visual score. Researching it: Agatha Gothe-Snape website: agathagothesnape.net/three-ways-toenter-and-exit-2011 Tin Sheds Gallery documentation: GOMA Other ways to Enter and Exit documentation: qld.gov.au/2014/06/04/agatha-gothesnape-other-ways-to-enter-and-exit/ ACCA Education page 24

25 Brian Fuata All Titles: point of departures 1-3, 2014 Brian Fuata is a Sydney-based writer and performance artist, whose improvisational practice is grounded in conversation, text and movement. He makes work about himself relating to different places or spaces of performance whether it is in the theatre, gallery, via or sms texting. Over several years Fuata has used as a space for his performance works and audience gathering His performances draw on or add to existing communications ed to him, in which he has added phrases, text and tropes, in varying font sizes and colours. These texts are circulated to an online audience through the BCC field to all those that have subscribed to Fuata s performances. Selected excerpts of these performances have been printed in large A0 scale, framed and hung from floor to ceiling on the gallery wall. Similar to viewing the work scrolling the mouse up, down, across on a computer screen, one must move their heads up, down and across to view and read the text works. The black and white font reminds us of Word Art on Microsoft Excel, with a repeating and fading shadow of letters creating a sense that the letters are pulsing and moving. Thinking about it: As a class debate Fuata s use of as a site and space for performance art. Text and language are central to Fuata s work. Research the work of other artists using text in their practice, including Barbara Kruger, John Baldessari and Mel Bochner. Compare and contrast how these artists have used text in their artworks to communicate ideas and develop meaning. Researching it: Brian Fuata website: Brian Fuata, Performance Perspectives interview: Real Time, Brian Fuata: ACCA Education page 25

26 Helen Grogan SPECIFIC IN-BETWEEN (The choreographic negotiated in six parts), 2014 curatorial and research project structured as a six- part series consisting of six live performative and discursive events and six compilations of writings, audio and visual materials accessible online with intermittent additions and removals 9 October - 23 November 2014 SETTING for SPECIFIC IN-BETWEEN (The choreographic negotiated in six parts), 2014 reconfigurable laminate flooring panels assembled in six configurations over the duration of SPECIFIC IN-BETWEEN (The choreographic negotiated in six parts), 2014; configurations adapted to the spatial and social requirements of the live contributions to the series and designed in conjunction with the participating artists 55 units: 117 x 31cm (each). place on moveable panel flooring which is rearranged in gallery one (ACCA s largest gallery space) on the morning before each weekly performance. The floor panels click together and provide a site, space and frame for the performance to exist. Although it is a temporary event, after each performance the flooring remains in the space, in the same shape and form. Thus in the absence of the performance, the flooring acts as a tracking of the activity occurred and document of the work. Researching it: Helen Grogan website: Liquid Architecture: Helen Grogan: artists/helen-grogan/ The work by Helen Grogan SPECIFIC IN-BETWEEN (The choreographic negotiated in six parts) sits in between the exhibition themes. The work consists of a series of public programs that explores specific artistic ideas or themes and takes the forms of artist talks, panel discussions, lectures and art performances. The performances occur every Wednesday evening during the exhibition period and take ACCA Education page 26

27 Further Analysis Questions & Activities Pre-Visit Discussions Why is art important in our world? What makes something a work of art? What are the most important skills an artist can have? What materials and tools do artists use to create art today? What is Performance Art? What is the difference between working alone and collaborating with others? Must artworks be beautiful? Must artworks be permanent or can they be temporary or ephemeral? Can documentation of temporary performances or artworks be art? Why might some artists choose to create performance artworks? During ACCA Visit Explore the artworks and ideas through participation in one of ACCA s FREE Education Programs. Including TALK THINK MAKE for P-10 and VCE Education Programs for U1-4 Studio Arts & Art. More information: Post Visit Learning Activities Refer to the thinking about it questions and activities in previous artwork discussions. Which work or works in this exhibition were your favourites? What was it that impressed you about these works? Was it the ideas? Was it the way they were constructed or documented? Write down your ideas and then discuss your opinions with the person next to you or with other members of your class. Which work did you least like in the exhibition? What was it that you found difficult in this work? Or what is that you disliked in this work? Why was this? Have your ideas about what art can be changed after exploring the exhibition? Why and how? ACCA Education page 27

28 AusVELS 2-6 AusVELS 7-8 AusVELS 9-10 VCE Art Thinking Processes & The Arts Creating and Making / Exploring and Responding Inspired by the ideas of movement, gesture, choreography and documentation explored in FRAMED MOVE- MENTS work in groups of 4 to create your own performance work. This performance work could take different forms and be inspired by different starting points, including: Inspired by Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom: an interpretation of daily tasks or activities. Inspired by Agatha Gothe-Snape: an interpretation of an image, shapes, pattern or colour. Conceptual artists often write instructions for their work, so it can be recreated in other locations around the world. Write a set of instructions for an installation you would like to make. It can be as big and ambitious as you like! Thinking Processes & The Arts Creating and Making / Exploring and Responding Inspired by the ideas of movement, gesture, choreography and documentation explored in FRAMED MOVE- MENTS work in groups of 4 to create your own performance work. This performance work could take different forms and be inspired by different starting points, including: Inspired by Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom: an interpretation of daily tasks or activities. Inspired by Joachim Koester: an interpretation of the gestures and movements seen in common film genres. Inspired by Agatha Gothe-Snape: an interpretation of an image, shapes, pattern or colour. View a dance performance online (eg. music video, dance musical). Inspired by Gothe-Snape s work and using select art elements and principles interpret this performance by creating your own visual score. Thinking Processes & The Arts Creating and Making / Exploring and Responding What are the differences between conceptual art, performance art, installation art, can an artwork fit into many categories at one time? Did you see the artist perform during your visit or not? How would it have been different if you had, or had not, seen her perform how does it change the nature of the artwork? The word ephemeral can be used to describe anything that maybe brief or short lived. If you were an artist who made ephemeral art how would you prove it existed? VCE Studio Art Identify and discuss some of the challenges and considerations a curator might face developing an exhibition of temporary performance works and recreating past performance works. Analyse how Sandra Selig has used art elements and principles, including shape, light, movement and sound to create aesthetic qualities. Examine Lee Serle, Maria Hassabi and Agatha Gothe-Snape s use of dance and choreographic techniques. How does this challenge or reflect artistic or social traditions? With reference to Alicia Frankovich s performance, documentation and installation: How does this work differ from traditional ideas of making, viewing and experiencing art in galleries and museums? Explore Maria Hassabi s work with reference to the conceptual frameworks. How does it feel to be a participant in the artwork and the creation of meaning? Analyse how Sandra Selig has used formal elements including space, sound and shape in her work. Analyse the work by Ann Carlson and Mary Ellen Strom with reference to the Cultural Framework. Discuss the role of gender and gender stereotyping in Joachim Koester s work. Identify and discuss the materials and techniques involved in creating Maria Hassabi s performance. ACCA Education page 28

29 Further Reading Glossary Performance Art performance-art-an-introduction.html Historical connections between Dance and Visual Arts Ballet Russes: articles/d/diaghilev-and-the-balletsrusses/ exhibitions/2013/diaghilev.html watch?v=lmsr8er2-mi Constructivist Theatre: mdenner/drama/plays/constructivist/ constructivist.html Das Triadisches Ballett watch?v=8c6b7vkfdw4 Robert Morris: id=31196&mode=large&page_id=6 Anna Halprin: html Simone Forti watch?v=29vcs5tby5i William Forsyth Androgynous: a combination of male and female characteristics in appearance, making it uncertain whether it is a male or female person. Genre (in film): categories or classifications based on use of narrative elements from which films are constructed eg. Western, Romantic Comedy, Drama etc. Tableau: In a tableau, participants make still images with their bodies to represent a scene or characters. A tableau can be used to quickly establish a scene that involves a large number of characters. White cube: is used to describe a typical white walled, square shaped gallery space. Venice Biennale: is a major international contemporary art exhibition that takes place every two years in Venice, Italy. Modernism: is a philosophical movement that arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, among them the development of modern industrial societies. More specifically in art modernism is defined as a broad movement in western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. It is characterised by constant innovation and rejection of conservative values such as the realistic depiction of the world. Photomontage: is a collage constructed from photographs Typography is the art and technique of arranging type (font style, point size, line length, line-spacing, letterspacing) to create written language. Ephemeral: lasting for a short time; short-lived. Merce Cunningham Dance: dancing-with-the-art-world-day-1-atthe-hammer-museum-los-angeles/ Mark Leckey: ACCA Education page 29